How RPGs nearly killed my creativity (and how I got it back)

[Thanee]

[Off-Topic] Just a lil question... is there any information in the 32-page Gazetteer, which is not in the LGG? Or is it just a "light" version of it? Because unlike some others here, I "only" have the latter, but not the first.

@Doug: Radiant Servant of Pelor. Eye of Gruumsh. Temple Raider of Olidammara. Fist of Hextor. There are plenty of these Greyhawk deity-specific PrC. Many of the PrC in the old "splatbooks" (S&F, DotF, T&B, S&S, MotW) where based on the Greyhawk background, I think.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Cyronax]

[Off-Topic] Just a lil question... is there any information in the 32-page Gazetteer, which is not in the LGG? Or is it just a "light" version of it? Because unlike some others here, I "only" have the latter, but not the first.

Bye
Thanee

It is basically LGG lite. Its the 3.0 answer to the old 1980 folio. Its enough to run with, and it only costs $10 in store, or probably less when bunched with other Amazon.com orders.

It adds 5 new gods to the 'core' pantheon: Al'akbar, Rao, Pholtus, Iuz, and Sehanine Moonbow. I like this setup. Those five gods, with perhaps the addition of Tharizdun (and maybe Wastri and Zagyg) do make Greyhawk seem more Greyhawk.

I can't deny that its redundant (and hence the starting point to much of the Gazetteer's criticism), but having bought both..I've still found use for it. I use the Gazzetteer as my basline, while the LGG is mainly for my personal reference and enjoyment. I almost use LGG to track how things are if I'm too lazy to think if it myself.

My players generally only need fear the Gazzetteer.


C.I.D.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Wastri

A white supremacist frog! How can you go wrong?

 

[Cyronax]

A white supremacist frog! How can you go wrong?

Greyhawk's sad nod to Nazism.........in the form of a god-frog. It always struck me as odd that the Suel of the Scarlet Brotherhood wasn't more 'in line' with Wastri...but whatever.

I forget their names, but the Monsters of Faerun supplement has some great frog-monk creatures that woudl do well to serve the Hopping Prophet.

C.I.D.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

It is basically LGG lite. Its the 3.0 answer to the old 1980 folio. Its enough to run with, and it only costs $10 in store, or probably less when bunched with other Amazon.com orders.

It adds 5 new gods to the 'core' pantheon: Al'akbar, Rao, Pholtus, Iuz, and Sehanine Moonbow. I like this setup. Those five gods, with perhaps the addition of Tharizdun (and maybe Wastri and Zagyg) do make Greyhawk seem more Greyhawk.

I can't deny that its redundant (and hence the starting point to much of the Gazetteer's criticism), but having bought both..I've still found use for it. I

What I love about the Gazetteer is that it's a nifty little book I can give to players and say, "Here, read this. Your character knows most of this stuff." Great for newbies to the Greyhawk setting. I've actually bought several copies of the Gazetteer and put a sticker on the covers that says "Player's Copy". Yes, I'm a geek.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

This runs totally contrary to my own experience. I have tons of RPG books and acquire more all the time, and I get many good ideas from them. Many years have passed since the last time I actually GMed a campaign setting (Spelljammer), but I still regularly buy Realms, Eberron, Iron Kingdoms, Rokugan, Dragonlance and Arcana Unearthed setting-specific material, and sometimes pick up others. Why? Because there's some very cool stuff in all of that material, every bit as much as in a setting-neutral book or the much-vaunted core rules.

I don't like making up new mechanics. It's boring and time consuming to do reasonably well. Most of the mechanics out there are indeed done to the standards I require, which are admittedly lenient. I much prefer to boil away the flavor from a Realms PrC (for example, Red Wizard) and either make it available as a mechanical representation of a character concept or attach new flavor to it. Flavor is easy and quick to do reasonably well, easy and not all that time consuming to do extremely well.

Would I play in an established setting? Sure. I play in an Iron Kingdoms game right now.

Would I GM in an established setting? I'd GM Spelljammer if there were a 3.x conversion, and possibly do said conversion myself if I knew an interested group of players. I'd GM a Final Fantasy licensed campaign if one were released - I do it now as a homebrew. I might GM Iron Kingdoms or Dragonlance, but probably not.

Would I find my creativity stifled by not having an established setting's crunch, if not some of its fluff? Probably. Given time I could fill all the crunch voids and come up with pure homebrew fluff or fluff based off some other existing world. But it's much easier and more enjoyable for me to pick through existing books.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have a ton of books, but they seldom see use in my game. I use them as recreational reading, since as I've gotten older, my attention span for pure fiction has waned. Its a lot more entertaining to curl up with a good game manual than to wonder what the hell the last five pages of the fiction I'm reading said.

Man...it's like you just read my own mind. My brother has finished writing his first novel, and of course he's asked me to read it. It's good. It's fun. It's exciting. But I just have to force myself to read it, or anything anymore. Even gaming books are read in small increments. I find that as I age, my attention span shortens more and more.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Words to live by I think. I just forked out 50 dollars for Ars Magica.

And regret it, despite it being a good game and all. The chance of me playing it is low. I was just about to swear to never buy another book when I read this thread.

*so swears*

Homebrew all the way!

I keep:

Call of Cthulu (Chaosium)
Feng Shui
D+D Core
Godlike
Grim Tales
Mutants and Masterminds

I need nothing more.

 

[Von Ether]

I may have bought tons of books, but it was more for different game mechanics, from d20 Farscape to Spellslinger.

The only game I ran "by the book" was Farscape, but that was because the series was still on and I got a lot of mileage from the parnioia my player's had after seeing an episode. Otherwise, I've been tempted by Eberron, but the rest has been all homebrews.

LOL! In fact, I'm known as the local GM who grabs one game for the background world and another game for the game system.

Oddly enough, I noticed quite a few "fanboys" back in AD&D, not 3.0. Or the wierdest yet, guys who only play 3.5 Forgotten Realms so they can still use their 10 year old 2nd ed. FR books.

 

[Allanon]

I love having lots of D&D books. For recreational reading, idea searching and the game itself. I'm a DM who thinks in scenes and situations. World building just isn't my thing. Therefore having lots of setting information gives me the scenery in which I can play my fantasies and good RPG books (like the Eberron Campaign Setting) give me abundant ideas to inflict upon my players. Eberron is my setting of choice at the moment, because it's detailed enough the give me everything I need but open enough to allow everything I want.